Still riding out the storm

Damage from a spinoff storm from Hurricane Ike affecting Ryder Cup

J.B. Holmes tugged on his black glove, steadied his eyes down the fairway of the 594-yard 10th hole at Valhalla and pounded a tee shot Monday with such force that Raymond Floyd, an assistant captain at the Ryder Cup, could only shake his head.

"It's a different game," said Floyd, who played in his first Ryder Cup four decades ago.

It was a display of sheer power, something that was in rare supply Monday as the Ryder Cup activities began with hardly any electricity.

Even as European captain Nick Faldo and seven of his players arrived on a charter flight from London, much of Louisville, Ky., was without power as the host city tried to recover from a spinoff storm generated by Hurricane Ike.

Faldo and U.S. captain Paul Azinger held their first news conference in the Kentucky Exhibition Center, where generators were required for television lighting.

"I've got 12 guys who want to win," Faldo said.

Of equal concern was getting Valhalla Golf Club dressed up for its biggest golf event ever.

Fairways that normally are as clean as carpet were littered with small twigs and leaves, with larger branches scattered in the rough. Dozens of workers were busy raking the leaves into piles, and carts zipped along the roads removing the debris.

A television tower collapsed onto the back of the 12th green, causing enough damage to possibly eliminate one back hole location. Course superintendent Mark Wilson and his crew patched up the dents with pieces of sod in the shape of circles and squares, but there were nasty scars that might need more than a few days to heal.

Holmes was joined by Boo Weekley, two of the six Ryder Cup rookies on an American team that has not won the Ryder Cup since that raucous rally Sunday at Brookline in 1999.

The matches begin Friday, and there is little doubt who is favored to win. Europe is on its longest winning streak since this exhibition began in 1927, having won the past three.

WIE READY FOR QUALIFYING: Michelle Wie's untraditional path to a professional golf career will take a traditional turn today when she tees off in a sectional qualifying tournament in Rancho Mirage, Calif., the first step toward earning her LPGA Tour card.

Wie will play the first stage at Mission Hills, site of the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Wie, 18, is among 164 players in the 72-hole tournament who are competing for about 30 berths into the final qualifying tournament in December.